Newly appointed Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani will not draw any salary

IT giant Infosys on Friday said that the newly appointed non-executive chairman and non-independent director Nandan Nilekani will not draw any salary for his current tenure at the company. Co-founder and former Chief Executive Mr Nilekani has a 0.93 per cent stake holding in the IT services firm. 

"His last drawn remuneration for the fiscal 2010 in which he ceased to be a director was Rs. 34 lakhs," the company said in a filing to the BSE. Mr Nilekani was installed as the new chairman of Infosys on August 24 days after Vishal Sikka stepped down as CEO.

Infosys also clarified that "UB Pravin Rao will continue to hold the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) for which he will continue to receive the remuneration as approved by the shareholders vide postal ballot concluded on March 31, 2017." "He will not receive any additional compensation for his role as the Interim-Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director," it added.

Mr Nilekani said his priorities at the company were to find a CEO, reconstitute the board and shape future strategy. "I have come in to focus on the future of the company, I have come in to take the company forward and deal with its challenges," he said.

The company has named executive recruitment firm Egon Zehnder to help find a CEO who will be able to manage a large global firm, accelerate strategy execution and oversee its transformation, Mr Nilekani added.

For months, former Infosys executives and few co-founders, including NR Narayana Murthy, are locked in the battle of words over corporate governance issues. Earlier in the day, former chairman R Seshasayee hit out at Mr Murthy for carrying out "personal attacks" and making "false and slanderous accusations" against him, saying he was unable to understand the motivation for the persistent vendetta.